There are certain things which tell you, very quickly, what sort of wedding day you are about to have.
A beautifully organised ceremony area is one. A carefully chosen playlist is another. A groom wearing green while his groomsmen are in beige suggests that somebody has actually thought about the colours rather than simply ticking “navy” on a wedding spreadsheet and moving on.
And then there is the ultimate sign that you are dealing with genuinely thoughtful people.
They build the musicians a gazebo.
This, frankly, is how civilisations advance.
On 17 August 2026, JAM Duo travelled to Folly Farm at Stowey, near Bishop Sutton, to provide live cello and piano music for the wedding of Pamela and Curtis. We were playing for their outdoor wedding ceremony followed by the drinks reception on the lawn, with around 59 guests joining them for what turned out to be a wonderfully relaxed and very personal summer wedding.
And yes, waiting for us for the drinks reception was a gazebo, erected specifically so that we could play outside without slowly being grilled by the afternoon sun.
Pamela and Curtis: thank you. We noticed. We appreciated it enormously.
An outdoor ceremony at Folly Farm
The ceremony setting at Folly Farm is exactly the sort of place that makes an outdoor wedding feel worth the logistical gamble.
There was no attempt to turn the countryside into a ballroom. Instead, rows of wooden chairs were arranged on the gravel with a simple wooden structure at the front, stone walls and planting around the ceremony area, and open views stretching away beyond it.
It felt rustic without being contrived.
There is, after all, a fine line between “beautifully informal countryside wedding” and “someone has left 60 chairs in a field”. Folly Farm manages to remain comfortably on the correct side of it.
Guests began arriving from around midday, with the ceremony itself scheduled for 1pm. For JAM Duo this meant providing a substantial programme of live music before Pamela’s entrance — not simply appearing three minutes before the bride and playing Canon in D until somebody waved at us.
Pamela and Curtis had put a great deal of thought into their choices.
Their pre-ceremony music included Can’t Help Falling in Love, Wildest Dreams, Your Song, My Heart Will Go On, Landslide, Tale as Old as Time, Bless the Broken Road and A Groovy Kind of Love.
Which, as eight songs go, covers Elvis Presley, Taylor Swift, Elton John, Celine Dion, Fleetwood Mac, Disney, Rascal Flatts and Phil Collins.
That is not so much a playlist as a small musical coalition government.
And it worked beautifully.
Music as the ceremony began
Once the guests were seated, the music became even more closely tied to the different parts of the entrance.
We played Supertramp’s Lord Is It Mine and Ronan Keating’s When You Say Nothing at All, before Curtis made his entrance with his groomsmen to You’ll Be in My Heart by Phil Collins.
There is something we particularly like about couples choosing music for the groom’s entrance.
Traditionally, the groom is expected simply to materialise at the front of the ceremony, rather like a member of venue staff who happens to own a particularly good suit.
Giving that moment its own piece of music makes it part of the occasion.
Next came All My Life by K-Ci & JoJo, followed by one particularly important instruction from Pamela and Curtis: Come What May from Moulin Rouge had to be the final piece before the bridesmaids entered.
This is exactly where live musicians are useful.
A wedding ceremony is not an airline timetable. People walk at different speeds. Flower girls occasionally reconsider the entire project halfway down the aisle. Registrars speak for longer or shorter than expected. Bridesmaids may appear sooner than anticipated.
So we watch.
We listen.
And we adapt the music to what is actually happening, rather than expecting the wedding to fit itself around a recording.
Stuck On You, Enchanted and the bridal entrance
The four bridesmaids made their entrance to Lionel Richie’s Stuck On You, before a recording chosen by Pamela and Curtis formed part of the ceremony entrance.
The flower girl and page boy then walked together, followed by Pamela herself, to Taylor Swift’s Enchanted.
And this was a particularly good choice for cello and piano.
Taylor Swift’s music crops up increasingly often at weddings, and with good reason. Strip away the stadium production and a surprising amount of it works extremely well instrumentally. Enchanted has that sense of anticipation and gradual lift which suits a bridal entrance perfectly.
More importantly, it was their choice.
That matters.
There is no official committee sitting in a bunker somewhere deciding that brides may enter only to Pachelbel, Christina Perri or whichever Bridgerton arrangement happens to be circulating on Instagram that month.
If a piece means something to you, use it.
Our job is to turn it into something which works naturally for cello and piano and fits the moment happening in front of us.
Music during the signing
For the signing of the register, Pamela and Curtis chose another wonderfully varied trio:
Beautiful Crazy by Luke Combs,
Beautiful in White by Shane Filan, and
Crazier by Taylor Swift.
The signing is often one of the most underestimated musical moments in a wedding ceremony.
It lasts longer than most people imagine, largely because several documents need to be dealt with and apparently marriage, despite centuries of refinement, still requires a surprising amount of paperwork.
Live music fills that space naturally.
The guests can relax, the couple can enjoy the moment, and nobody has to endure the strange silence which otherwise descends while several people stare thoughtfully at a table.
A rather excellent exit choice
For their exit, Pamela and Curtis chose Chemical by Post Malone.
But not simply “Chemical by Post Malone”.
They specifically wanted it starting from around 48 seconds into the original song.
We love details like this.
It shows that the couple have actually listened to the music and thought about exactly which part creates the feeling they want.
With live music, of course, there is no need to press play and then stand around waiting 48 seconds for something interesting to happen. We can arrange the piece so the exit begins with the section required.
Pamela and Curtis walked back through their guests as newlyweds, with the ceremony complete and the day properly underway.
Confetti followed shortly afterwards.
From ceremony to drinks reception
We then moved across to the lawn for the drinks reception.
Moving a piano and cello between locations at a wedding can sometimes resemble a low-budget military exercise.
There are cables. Stands. Amplification. Instruments. The Nord. The piano shell. And usually one tiny gravel path designed by somebody who has never attempted to move anything heavier than a tray of prosecco.
At Folly Farm, access was thankfully straightforward, and we had our setup ready for the afternoon drinks.
For this wedding we were using our Nord piano inside the gloss black piano shell, paired with Anne-Marie’s new Yamaha SVC300 electric cello.
The piano shell gives the setup the appearance of a small black grand piano while allowing us to use the Nord inside it — a combination which works particularly well for outdoor weddings.
The Yamaha SVC300, meanwhile, is Anne-Marie’s newest electric cello and has quickly become part of our regular wedding setup.
And then, of course, there was that gazebo.
A gazebo erected for us by the couple.
Not demanded.
Not added as an afterthought when somebody noticed the cellist beginning to smoulder.
Already there.
Magnificent.
Drinks reception music chosen by Pamela and Curtis
The drinks reception playlist was every bit as varied as the ceremony.
We played songs including Yellow by Coldplay, All the Small Things by Blink-182, Anyone by Justin Bieber, Beautiful Girls by Sean Kingston, Half the World Away by Oasis, How Deep Is Your Love by the Bee Gees and Love Story by Taylor Swift.
There was Shania Twain’s You’re Still the One, Elton John’s Can You Feel the Love Tonight, Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere, Paramore’s The Only Exception, Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger and Beyoncé’s Halo.
Then came Toto’s Africa, Dreams by The Cranberries, Mr Brightside by The Killers and Ordinary by Alex Warren.
In other words, exactly the sort of repertoire we enjoy playing.
There is a curious notion that cello and piano ought to spend their lives performing tasteful ballads while everybody nods appreciatively over a glass of champagne.
We disagree.
If Blink-182 works, we play Blink-182.
If somebody wants Eye of the Tiger while holding a glass of fizz in the Somerset countryside, that is perfectly acceptable too.
Weddings are considerably more interesting when the music reflects the people getting married rather than a generic idea of what wedding music is supposed to sound like.
Two songs with particularly important timing
Pamela and Curtis had also asked us to make sure that they were present for two particular pieces during the drinks reception: Bella Ciao and Loch Lomond.
Again, this is where having live musicians rather than an unattended playlist becomes rather useful.
We could keep an eye on where Pamela and Curtis were, wait until they were back amongst their guests, and then play the songs they particularly wanted to hear.
It sounds like a small thing.
But these are often the things couples remember.
A wedding day moves remarkably quickly. The photographer needs you. Somebody hands you a drink. Somebody else wants a photograph. A relative you last saw in 2009 wants to tell you an amusing story. Before you know it, three songs you specifically chose have disappeared while you were standing beside a hydrangea.
So when couples tell us that certain pieces matter, we do our best to make sure they actually hear them.
A wedding which felt personal
What stood out about Pamela and Curtis’s wedding was the amount of personality in the details.
The rust and copper bridesmaid dresses, beige groomsmen and Curtis in green looked superb against the natural outdoor setting. Their music ranged from Supertramp and Phil Collins to Taylor Swift, Post Malone, Blink-182 and The Killers.
Nothing felt selected because somebody had announced that it was a “wedding song”.
It was simply music they liked.
And that is exactly how we think wedding music should work.
You are allowed to have Celine Dion next to Fleetwood Mac.
You are allowed to have Disney next to Oasis.
You can absolutely follow the Bee Gees with Blink-182.
There are no points awarded for maintaining genre consistency.
It is a wedding, not Radio 3.
Live cello and piano for an outdoor Somerset wedding
For JAM Duo, this was exactly the sort of wedding day we love being part of.
An outdoor ceremony where the music had been carefully planned around each entrance. A relaxed drinks reception on the lawn. A couple who had chosen songs which genuinely meant something to them. And a setting where live cello and piano could become part of the atmosphere without overwhelming it.
Most of all, Pamela and Curtis were simply lovely people to work with.
Their thoughtfulness towards us — including providing that gazebo for the drinks reception — was hugely appreciated, and we were delighted to be part of their wedding.
So thank you, Pamela and Curtis, for inviting JAM Duo to Folly Farm and trusting us with the music for such an important part of your day.
We hope married life contains plenty more Taylor Swift, Fleetwood Mac and Post Malone.
And, wherever possible, strategically positioned gazebos.
